Overview

Funding and Mentoring Health IT Innovation

The New York Digital Health Accelerator (NYDHA) is a program run by the New York eHealth Collaborative and the Partnership Fund for New York City for growth-stage digital health companies that are developing cutting edge technology products for healthcare providers and patients in the areas of care coordination, patient engagement, predictive analytics and workflow management.

The five-month program is unique in that tech companies accepted into the Accelerator class obtain direct access to major customers and receive product feedback from senior-level executives of major institutions. More than a dozen leading healthcare provider organizations in New York, ranging from hospitals and long-term providers, to community health centers and primary care physicians, are participating in the program.

The program will provide $100,000 in up-front funding per company from a syndicate of leading venture capital and strategic investors. In addition, the companies will have access to a leadership program with participation by a network of successful entrepreneurs, and they will be afforded access to the Statewide Health Information Network of New York (SHIN-NY).

New York – A Leader in HIT Innovation

The Accelerator program will leverage the $840 million investment made in New York to adopt Electronic Health Records (EHRs), and the investment made by the New York eHealth Collaborative to create the SHIN-NY, which will connect these EHRs across the state.

To improve care and lower costs, healthcare payment systems are rapidly shifting towards new payment mechanisms that require physicians to collaborate on patient care. New care models such as Medicaid’s Health Home program, patient-centered medical homes, and Accountable Care Organizations are premised on such collaboration. However, the current marketplace of EHR systems does not provide physicians with all the tools they need to share patient data and collaborate with other providers treating a patient.

A market gap exists and new networked collaboration software tools are needed to leverage a patient’s health records. New York is leading the nation in the development of a state health information exchange network and has established relationships with a large community of healthcare organizations. These healthcare organizations are uniquely positioned to help create the tools for collaborative care because they are connected to a Health Information Exchange (HIE) and knowledgeable in HIT. Through partnerships with other states, New York has created an industry forum to establish a standardized HIE platform. Software applications developed on the HIE platform can easily be installed in other states, resulting in access to a large marketplace for software development firms.